Diplomatic Reputation Quests
Consider adding some neutral-NPCs who can accept various repeatable quests suited to various levels to raise your standing with a given faction, allowing a player to slowly work their way up from hostile with an opposing faction. Since the game determines NPC hostility based on faction reputation (with opposed factions starting at hostile with no way to improve it in the base game), raising your reputation sufficiently would allow you to actually interact with opposing faction NPCs amiably and not be attacked on sight, and eventually allowing sufficiently advanced diplomats the ability to safely rest and operate in towns and outposts controlled by the opposing factions.
For example, you might have NPCs such as an "Orc War Relief Emissary" that accepts donations of bandages in exchange for reputation with Ogrimmar, a "Medical Aid Emissary" that accepts donations of potions, and trade-themed NPCs with similar effects (such as NPCs that want things like belt buckles, sharpening stones, oils, grinding stones, gems, enchanting dusts, etc).
Cultural Exchange Quests
A series of quest for each faction that upon completion would award you with the language of that faction (such as learning to speak Orcish), likely requiring a sufficient reputation with the NPCs to start the quest chains.
Battle Forged Bonds
Make the diplomatic papers (or another item) grant small amounts of reputation for all opposed factions when defeating elite enemies (such as those found in dungeons) when partying with a member of the opposed faction, similar to the way the Argent Dawn trinket grants reputation with the Argent Dawn when slaying the undead in the Plaguelands. If it's going to each up your bag space it might as well be doing something.
"They told me Mankirk's Wife was in Elwynn Forest..."
Ideally, once reaching a sufficient reputation point, being able to accept and do quests, train, or purchase items from the newly esteemed faction would become available (similar to the goblin in Blackrock Depths who can teach players to smelt Eternium if you have a priest mind-control them so they are no longer hostile).
The reasoning for these proposal is as follows.
- It gives "new" content to explore that's unique to the server and of a role-play variety.
- It creates more opportunities for the community to interact with each other across zones.
- It provides a nice sink for lots of crafted items that might not be particularly attractive in the player economy ("normal" quality crafted items especially) and reasons to make lots of them for the quests.
- It potentially "doubles" the amount of content that you could do on a given character without actually adding a mountain of new content in, which would allow you to stay quite busy even at 0.5 rates and long after. It gives an interesting set of potential goals to collect outfits from both factions.
- It's great for role-playing since you could have an orc who (upon proving themselves) finds themselves in Ironforge studying archaeology and gnomish tinkering, or a human trying to build ties with their undead family members in Lordaeron, etc.
- It opens up the ability for friends to play the races or factions they want (some people just really want to play cute gnomes and others big fuzzy beefbros with equally big freaking axes) and run around questing and adventuring together for whatever roleplay reasons they decide (maybe the tauren nursed the poor gnome back to health after she was exhausted from turning a bandit camp into a smoldering crater).
